Riptide #1 with a Bullet (1984–1986) Online

Surf sound band PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) frontmen - easy-going Chip Ross and prickly misanthrope Dell Turner (Brant Van Hoffman) are in a car accident due to faulty brakes on Dell's sports-car. Chip is killed instantly and Dell is hospitalized and unconscious. Earlier that day Dell had severed relations with their record company and treated everyone in proximity with characteristic disdain.

The fan club for PCH hire the Riptide Detective Agency to deliver flowers and gifts to Dell. They figure they can't deliver it themselves believing that only private investigators will be able to find out where he is being treated. The Riptide boys are far from enthused with the assignment but it looks like easy work that they can get done quickly.

Having easily found out what hospital he is in and having paid a nurse (Kelbe Nugent) to drop off the gifts they discover something isn't quite right about the whole thing. The beautiful young nurse barely escapes after having seen something she wasn't supposed to. The Riptide boys got her into something dangerous and they won't leave her hanging. But saving Dell is another thing entirely.

It is more than an urban legend that the best career move a popular musician can make is to die. This particular take on that also adds in the phenomenon of those musicians who are insufferable except for when they are creating and performing. Anybody who ever met Dell could be trying to kill him. When the list of suspects includes the white pages it should theoretically make for a challenging mystery.